“Safety is a top priority for Black Hills Energy, and we work shoulder to shoulder with fire and rescue teams should the need arise,” said Southwest Kansas operations manager Mark McGaughey. “Natural gas is a safe, reliable energy source and natural gas fires are rare, so this training from Black Hills Energy provides firefighters with hands-on experience and instruction. We hope they’ll never need it, but it will prove invaluable if they do.”

The Garden City fire safety training session is one of many that Black Hills Energy has offered to fire departments throughout the utility’s 59 Kansas communities at no charge for a number of years.

Firefighters and rescue personnel learn the various characteristics of natural gas so as to safely and effectively manage a natural gas incident should one occur.

In one exercise, firefighters used hose streams and chemical extinguishers to put out ignited natural gas fed from a pipe underneath an old automobile to simulate the result of a car striking a gas meter. In another scenario, they practiced techniques to safely contain and extinguish natural gas fires from pipeline punctures.

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